Welcome back, Anti Fed Ed Warriors! I hope your Thanksgiving break was just what you needed.

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Built into ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) was the mandate to force ‘low performing’ schools into all kinds of straitjacket type solutions.
One, by far and away, the worst, was turning them over to privately run charter companies.

Look below and see how NC’s been creating laws and ‘new’ names to comply.
Your State’s doing this as well, Warriors!

Warriors, don’t forget, fromMay 2018, I showed you the NC’s ‘new’ solution for more ‘school choice’ which also feeds into the ESSA mandates that all education be aligned to the same thing. In that article, you’ll see how other States are also kowtowing to ‘Lab Schools’.

****************************************************Given the fact NC legislators have re-branded and created so much which fits right into the CCSS Machine’s plans, how could they possibly create/re-brand more?!

Their solution? Take the ‘low performing’ schools and ‘renew’ them. What does it look like? How does it work?***************************************************

Meet NC’s House Bill 986 (now State Law 2018-32)

(Bill/Lawin its entire form)(Link toWUNC’sarticle)Warriors, The ‘renewal’ parameters are not the first item in this ‘kitchen sink’ type of Bill (now State Law). If you want to skip to that section, you can go to the next section.

First, you’ll see the need for cursive and multiplication reports on a yearly basis. This is followed by expanding the advanced math for grades 3 and up. There’s even an option for parents to say no to advanced math for Johnny and Suzy, if they so choose.

This is followed by Educator Preparation Report Cards. Then a State Superintendent Testing Study. The point of the study? Reducing testing (as long as its not State or federally required) for K-12th grades. (*Note: Superintendent Johnson has already shoved out a ‘reduced testing’ fallacy, which I exposed in August 2018. You’ll also see that other States are doing the same type of thing.)

Next, is the Health and Suicide Protocol Training. That will see the NC’s Superintendent partner with the State’s HHS (Health and Human Services) to develop content and a model for mental health training which must include suicide, sex, and, substances.

Renew Your School?

It’s on Page 3 you’ll find the NC Renewal School District parameters begin. The 2018-32 Law is 8 pages in all, so all the nuts and bolts for ‘renewal’ have been laid out. In the screen shot below, I’ve summarized some of the biggest items:

Also built into the ‘renewal schools’ are anti bullying, school provided transportation for students, compliance with theState’s Uniform Education Reporting System(all data mining based), offering driver’s education, and, have at least 50% of the teachers licensed to teach. Of those who teach math, science, social studies, and language arts, they must be college graduates.
Renewal schools can contract with non-licensed citizens to be employed, they cannot teach, however.

On page 6 you’ll see that the funding for renewal schools will be a bit different than those schools not being renewed. The Law is clear in stating whatever State or federal funds are used for, State and federal mandates must be carried out.

Warriors, the most disturbing part about this renewal school district law is that the renewal system is locked into place until the 2022-23 academic yearUNLESS the renewal school fails.
However, the State Superintendent is the only one who can make the recommendation to close a renewal school..not the local school board! NC’s State Superintendent already has too much power, this built in mandate gives him more.

Look in your State, Warriors, what powers are increasing in your State Board of Education and/or Superintendent?

It does appear that IF a renewal school fails, it’s folded back into the public system, but then what?

It’s been passed off as ‘low performing’, then, maybe turned into a charter, to then be identified as ‘low performing’ again, to then go to ‘renewal’. The amount of waste in time, energy, money, and, most of all, messing with our teachers and students in this newest experiment is off the charts, Warriors!
The ‘renewal’ system is still steeped in massive student data rape, constant assessing for ‘student performance’.

How many ‘new ways’ are being foisted on the legislators to come up with the same reform in fresh forms?

Have we forgotten that those accreditation organizations (likeAdvancED) micromanage our school districts to no end already? What about their involvement in ‘renewal schools’? Why use one district(Rowan County)as the experiment school? (Source)

Is there a bigger piece of the ‘why Rowan County’ puzzle being chosen as the ‘renewal school district’? I believe there is, indeed.

The State of Indianais using the Rowan County NC STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Community Guide ‘success’ to embed more UN/ESSA mandates, including after school programs.Warriors, look in your States for similar activity.
If you look at the IN’s program and those funding it, you’ll see the Gates Foundation is chief among them.

Prosperity Zones are created by the NC Dept. of Commerce. Here’s their spin. Here’s mytruthabout them.

Closing:

Warriors, since the passage of ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act), new laws with ESSA mandates (since forgotten or maybe never realized) are hitting us hard and fast.

We’ve got to do more to raise awareness. Those newly elected leaders. Did they run on an ‘anti Common Core’ campaign? If so, ask them how can they oppose CCSS, but embrace the ESSA’s fallacy filed mandates? For example, expanding school choice or using education savings accounts, expanding early childhood education (beginning at birth) or career tracking..these are all CCSS aligned! The federal funding flowing to every one of the 50 States is not being broken. Will these new leaders do so?

No matter if it’s ‘renewal’, ‘lab’, ‘innovation’or some other ‘new choice’, it’s a lie!

Work with the leaders (new or not) to show them where those fallacies are! You know them well, my Warriors! You have the research! Share it!

Recently, Warriors Against Fed Ed, I was looking through my State’s Legislative website. I thought I’d seen enough of the proposed bills linking NC (where I live) to the ESSA’s (Every Student Succeeds Act) overreach in state education. (*Note: if you missed that article )

However, there was one I missed. It’s called the “BRIGHT Futures Act”. It’s from the NC Senate, and is also S56. My fellow anti CCSS Warrior, Andrea Dillon, shared news and video of this Bill on the “American Lens” Facebook page. In the video, our Lt. Governor is waxing joyously about how a “Last Mile” for NC is about to be reached. What is he referring to?

Digital Connectivity and how it will help Rural Education

“Digital Connectivity” ties rural education to the CCSS Machine through aligned workforce based education as laid out in ESSA, HEA (Higher Education Act), and WIOA (Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act).“Digital Connectivity” was also a huge portion of the U.S. House of Representative’s HR5 (Student Success Act).
I laid all this out for you in my previous article titled “ESSA and Digital Overload”. That article also helps us connect Rural Education to HR5 and “NC New Schools”. (*Note: the NC New Schools will lead to you to other States with rural education populations.)

You may recall, HR5 was the House’s version to re-authorize ESEA of 1965 (Elementary and Secondary Education Act). As a compromise, big parts of HR5 were taken and added to the U.S. Senate’s version of ESEA’s re-authorization, called “Every Child Achieves Act”, or S1177.

As we now know, S1177 is the Bill which survived and changed its name to ESSA to reflect all that ‘bi-partisan’ work from Congress.

The digital mandates are now coming to fruition. Conveniently completed from a State level with Bills such as “Bright Futures”.

Pausing For A Bit Of Reference:

Before we go on finding out how NC’s S65 is helping ESSA ‘set up shop’ in NC, let me say that I have no idea how many States have similar legislation. I have no clue how many NC State Leaders are pushing for all the ‘digital connectivity’ items they can get their hands on. However, I do know, that our State has a long history on jumping on the ‘fed ed’ bandwagon several times.

That NC has jumped on this bandwagon is no shocker. Why? NC was the first State to jump on board with Microsoft through their Microsoft IT Academy.

As we know, Microsoft is a huge digital, CCSS Machine organization. We know Bill Gates is Microsoft’s ‘guy’. We also know Gates is the one who signed an agreement with UNESCO for a one world curriculum, which grew into the CCSSI (Common Core State Standards Initiative). We see the CCSSI in the pages of ESSA, too. Literally.*Note: In ESSA, we also see the name change from “CCSS” (Common Core State Standards) to its less ‘vile’ name, ‘College and Career Readiness’. ESSA’s writers like to use that phrase. Along with the even more innocent sounding “Challenging State Academic Standards”. ESSA’s writers also threw in the ‘Career Technical Education (CTE)’ phrase.

So, what have Microsoft and NC been up to more recently than 2010? This short You Tube video (2013) will introduce you to the “Imagine Academy”.

In 2016, NC and Microsoft made the news in connection with the National Science Foundation’s (NSF)Big Data Regional Hubs. There are 4 of these Hubs across the USA. NC is in the Southern Hub. (*Note: NSF is also a huge CCSS Machine member organization.)

Back To The ‘BRIGHT Futures’:

Above you see a screen shot of the 4 page S65 Bill (BRIGHT Futures Act)

You’ll also see I added some emphasis to Page 1 of S65. These items are very important clues to those of us fighting federally led education in ALL age groups.

While the legislators promoting this Bill are calling this a great thing for NC, here are the parts they either left out by omission (assuming they have no idea how vast the CCSS Machine’s grip on workforce education is) OR by design.

a) P3s (Public-Private Partnerships) in education have created a disgrace to the classical, academic basis our students need.

b) Workforce based education, especially in adult populations ties back to WIOA and HEA, espically through the one-stop-job-centers here in NC. Called “NCWorks” it is a direct product of WIOAstate grant money awarded to NC. Why? WIOA grant money given to ANY State has an underlying purpose: using the job center data to ‘marry’ with the student data to create a seamless Career Tech/Career Pathway education! It is the ‘perfect’ setup. The student data, as we know, comes from the Dept. of Education; likewise, the job data comes from the Dept. of Labor. Both happen at the Federal level AND the State level!!

c) Making improvements in your State for better education/access to shouldn’t come about as a by-product of your economy. Those improvements should never place the importance of money over our students. Using a phrase like ‘all means necessary’ is also a big warning.

d) Governor appointed positions spell bad news for the State citizens, regardless of what Council or Committee it is. Special interests are vastly protected with these appointments.

e) Near the bottom of Page 1 (Line 27), “School Connectivity Initiative and Digital Learning Plan” are inserted. The SCI (School Connectivity Initiative) has been around a few years. Here’s what is does, “The NC School Connectivity Initiative (SCI) compliments the E-rate program in North Carolina by providing state funding to cover the non-discounted portion of school connectivity-related charges. The SCI also provides a statewide network connecting all LEAs and most charter schools to the Internet, E-rate training and support, and network engineering services.” Source: Page 18 of the NC Digital Learning Plan (*Note: E-Rates are those small charges on your phone bill. They, too, can be traced back to the CCSS Machine. E-Rates basically are funds used to data mine your students.) According to the NC Digital Plan, at the bottom of Page 18, it is revealed the E-rates used for NC are based on Free and Reduced Lunch Program.

The NC Digital Plan also is part of the CCSS Machine’s plan for continued alignment in education. How do I know this? CCSS Machine member, The Friday Institute, is the one which published the detailed Plan in 2015. Among the Plan’s pages is the factother States using Digital Learning Plans were used as models for NC. The roots for NC’s Digital shift in education go back to 1999. The CCSS Machine entered the digital push about the time Race to the Top surfaced.
To see and read the entire NC Digital Plan: nc-digital-learning-detailed-plan-9-14-15

“Innovation in Education: Students need access to modern technology to prepare them for a 21st century economy. Every student should have one-to-one devices (computers, laptops, tablets, etc.) in their North Carolina classroom. As Chairman of the Governor’s eLearning Commission and member of the State Board of Education’s Special Committee on Digital Learning, Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest is actively working to provide Wi-Fi access to every K – 12 classroom in the state. Though North Carolina leads the way in our effort to extend broadband Internet access to every public school, the next step is to expand that infrastructure to reach every public school classroom and put one-to-one devices in the hands of the students.”

I would urge any of you with proven research as to how digital devices are so dangerous in the hands of our youngest learners or how too much screen time is dangerous for any age student, to please contact the Lt. Governor and every one of the S65 Sponsoring Legislators.

If you missed why ‘school choice’ is an anti Fed Ed Warrior’sconflict:

As far as top-down digital legislation or programs containing digital learning and related to ESSA, or now codified within, America has:
Digital Promise
Digital Promise Neighborhoods
i3 Initiative
ConnectED
Digital Innovation Upgrades or Creations (at least $849 million in funding is ear-marked)
REAP (Rural Education Achievement Program) (Will impact Title One funding, use $1.6 billion in tax payer funds for ‘rigorous’ education including all technology, ramp up the STEM Master Corps, and more.)Community Schools (can also include 21st Century Community Learning Centers)

Closing:

So, pardon me, if I’m not seeing such a BRIGHT NC Future. What I do see is a NC committeed more to the federal government than to its citizens. I urge all of you who live in rural counties and states, use this article as an example of what is going on right under our noses to align everyone in education to the same thing!

Anti Fed Ed Warriors, are you aware that there are (or may be coming soon) “Practitioners” for education, thanks to the ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act)?!

That’s right, here in NC, we have an entire Committee of Practitioners for Education!
Below is a screen shot from the NC DPI (Dept. of Public Instruction):

What will the Committee do? Here’s the entire description of their duties:

“The duties of such committee shall include a review, before publication, of any proposed or final State rule or regulation pursuant to this title. In an emergency situation where such rule or regulation must be issued within a very limited time to assist local educational agencies with the operation of the program under this title, the State educational agency may issue a regulation without prior consultation, but shall immediately thereafter convene the State committee of practitioners to review the emergency regulation before issuance in final form.”
That stated, check this out, “Each State educational agency that receives funds under this title shall create a State committee of practitioners to advise the State in carrying out its responsibilities under this title.”

So, who or what State Agency is to decide what is an emergency? Who or what businesses, non-profits, for-profits, civic groups, or other LEA approved ‘educational programs/services’ will be deemed qualified to assist in education? What exactly IS an educational emergency? Warriors, as I’ve pointed out in the past, the ESSA opens the flood gates for almost anyone to have educational influence over your children, regardless of SCHOOL CHOICE.

Think of it this way: Thanks to ESSA, almost anything and everything qualifies as educational as long as it’s approved by the SEAs and/or the LEAs. Thus, access to your children in the name of ‘student success’ or ‘student achievement’ has been granted. Especially career exploring activities. Why? Workforce based education mandates in ESSA mirror the mandates of WIOA, Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.

CTE is one of those WIOA/ESSA mandates. This will be a flood gate moment for business leaders will have access to your students. Who will have the time or money to vet all these people? We’ve already seen the toxic control of power hungry business leaders meddling in education. ESSA gave them an even bigger leash by which to chain our students to workforce based education.

Now, let me point out, that what you see above appears to be the complete explanation for anyone interested in learning what this new Committee is to do. However, as is common practice by the NC DPI (and I bet your State’s too), there’s SO much more to what this Committee is to do. For example, on page 1 of the 3 page explanation for the ESSA‘inspired’Committee, you’ll find there are actually MORE duties for this group to carry out.

As far as those members of the Committee? Above all you see is that parents, teachers, representatives, etc. are to be included. Yet, what was ‘hidden’ are these numbers:
a) All members are to be residents of NC AND have a ‘demonstrated commitment to public education’.
b) Twenty-three members in all, the majority of these are LEAs (Local Education Agencies).
c) Eight ESSA program administrators
d) Two teachers (either from traditional public schools, career tech educators, or charter schools)
e) Two school principals (or other school leaders)
f) Two parents
g) Two school board members
h) Two private education representatives
i) Two paraprofessionals or instructional support staff
j) One representative of an authorized public chartering agencies
k) Two charter school leaders

When the Practitioner Committee meets, staff from the NC DPI are to attend.

Each of these 23 seats is APPOINTED. Terms of service are in YEARS and will be staggered so new appointees can be added as needed. The SBE (State Board of Education) approves the appointed members. Members are to serve without any pay, BUT compensation may occur. Lastly, and as almost an after thought, all meetings are open to the public.

The NC Federal Program Monitoring and Support main page states that “approximately $514,000,000 in federal funds provided to districts and schools each year. The primary role of the Division is to provide grants administration, program monitoring, data collection and reporting, and to facilitate the necessary technical assistance to ensure not only compliance, but quality programs for students. Compliance is the first step toward program quality; monitoring is the springboard to providing technical assistance.”

Right now, the biggest chunk of grant money is going for 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLCs). Also, mandated in ESSA. If you’ve not seen what hoops the government has for us to jump through, you’ll need to know that to receive the funding (which, is after all, our taxpayer dollars and cents) each organization wishing to become a 21st CCLC, you’ll need to get a Dun and Bradstreet number (credit rating related), you’ll need to use a specific web-based system (in NC’s case, it’s the “Comprehensive Continuous Improvement Plan (CCIP)”. Then, you’ll be directed to use a CCSS Machine member organization’s after school cost calculation system. After this, you’ll need to adhere to the NC Dept. of Commerce’s Tier System (economic related). See it all and use it to help you find it in your State: 21cclcapplication-guidance

Closing:

Warriors, I hope you can see, that what the federal government and the CCSS Machine sold as ‘locally, state led, state created education’, is in fact, a farce.
Oh, and if you think NC came up with this idea for a Practitioners Committee, be sure to find the pages near 297 of the Final Conference Report. ESSA mandates, anyone?

Anti CCSS Warriors, another work week is upon us. Another week to fight against the agenda behind the CCSS Initiative. We know part of the agenda is NOT a true academic education, but a workforce based, globally minded, and career ready citizen who will be an economic ‘positive’. I’ve written much on the topic. Our students, regardless of the their age are being described as ‘human capital’, ‘talent supply’, and other disgusting phrases. We can now add the dishonorable ‘globally ready’ to this list, at least in NC. But are there other states already willing to sell out their schools? You bet!

I invite you to enlarge the above screen shot. This is no joke for NC, but it’s a foolish move for the state, nonetheless. Why? Because instead of the state receiving LESS CCSS, it is continuing to LOCK CCSS into the schools!!
Here’s a quote from the page above, “In September 2011, the North Carolina State Board of Education (SBE) formed a Task Force on Global Education to assess the state’s effort to produce “globally competitive” graduates ready to live, work, and contribute in an interconnected world.” The Task Force found 6 major goals and committed to 5 of them. What are they? I’m so glad you asked! Below you’ll find the 6 goals in plain language, not the tricky double speak so often used in CCSS supportive dribble.

1) prepare students for global readiness2) use LEAs (Local Educational Agencies) to co-ordinate and align for global readiness3) prepare and align teachers for global readiness4) stress global language and culture5) involve as many P3 (public private partnerships) to get in the ‘global push’ as possible6) hone a sustainable, global competitive edge in communities

The 5 commitments? Again, in plain language, not pro CCSS rhetoric!
1) embedded global themes, more PBLs (problem or project based learning), and groom teachers for more globalness, not less
2) partner with HLIs (Higher Learning Institutions) for more to increase the supply of global ready teachers
3) transform schools into ‘new schools’ with the help of non-education related entities
4) expand the ‘global ready’ push to more NC school districts
5) work directly with the NC Dept. of Commerce and other external partners

To see the pro CCSS language as the State Board of Education’s Task Force stated the 6 goals and 5 commitments: exec-summary

Okay, that’s just the summary above, but what was in the 2013 Full Report?? Read on, anti CCSS Warriors, but have a ‘barf bag’ close by, you’ll probably feel your stomach begin to revolt! Oh, and I’m leaving it in their words this time. Following each quote, I’ll provide you with a plain speak articles of HOW each of these are locking in MORE CCSS, CTE, CP, STEM, and more! {*Note: CCSS is short for Common Core State Standards; CTE is short for Career Tech Education; CP is short for Career Pathways; and STEM is short for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math}

“College- and Career-Ready Standards. Like 45 other states, North Carolina is implementing the internationally-benchmarked Common Core State Standards in Mathematics and English Language Arts. In addition, unlike elsewhere, the state has also developed the new NC Essential Standards that underpins the newly developed North Carolina Standard Course of Study for all content areas.”My recent article where you can see how sold out to CCR (college/career readiness NC is and just which groups and schools are involved):https://commoncorediva.wordpress.com/2015/10/10/weekend-news-collective-workforce/

“Longitudinal Data System. To enable greater levels of data-driven decision-making, the state has implemented a Common Education Data Analysis and Reporting System (CEDARS), which links students and staff and allows data to be analyzed across sources, such as financial systems, teacher licensure, student information, and testing.”To see how well NC has covered its backside on mining student data and for how long it will go on in our student’s lives. I must warn you, other states are doing this as well!:https://commoncorediva.wordpress.com/2015/08/27/ccss-follow-up-system-more-than-money-will-follow-your-students/

“District and School Transformation. 118 low-performing schools and 12 school districts are receiving intensive and ongoing support to dramatically increase educator effectiveness and student achievement.”School district alignment often involves those who are employed therein. See how the CCSS Machine has its grasp on some of the nation wide groups overseeing or helping school districts!:https://commoncorediva.wordpress.com/2015/10/18/weekend-news-ccss-school-officials-alignment/

“ North Carolina Virtual Public School (NCVPS). NCVPS offers over 100 courses to students across the state, including Advanced Placement (AP), World Languages, Occupational Course of Study (OCS), and credit recovery courses.”What the NC Dept of Public Instruction doesn’t reveal is that NCVPS pulls in homeschoolers and other educational choices!:https://commoncorediva.wordpress.com/2015/02/23/monday-musings-two-wrongs-no-right/

So, I’ve shown you what’s up in NC, but what about the other states? Look for phrases like ‘globally connected’, ‘global network’, ‘future ready’, and similar. If you want more information on how many states are already connected to the GEN (Global Education Network): https://commoncorediva.wordpress.com/2015/09/17/tech-thursday-global-day-for-education/If you’d like to learn about the Global Competency Task Force:https://commoncorediva.wordpress.com/2015/01/23/fom-friday-primary-source-friend-or-foe-of-ccss/

With moves like these in our states, we know LOCKING in more CCSS/CCR/CTE is a reality, not a questioned possibility. If our leaders are saying ‘no’ to CCSS, but ‘yes’ to ANY of the above, we must hold them accountable!

Ahh, another weekend. Time for a brief break from the working world for some of us. However, for those of us against Common Core, we’ve learned our work is still before us.We’ve learned that the WIOA of 2014, Common Core, Career Tech Education, Career Pathways, STEM, and American Apprenticeships are ALL not only part of the CCSS Machine, but part of WIOA as well. (WIOA stands for the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014)

As I’ve done in the past, I’ll be using NC as the example from which you can use to see what’s up like it in your state.

The NCWorks Initiative:

Based on a plan by the Governor of NC, Pat McCrory, created by a group of state level authorities. Below is only 1 excerpt from the website. To see the rest of the Initiative’s purpose, visit: http://www.nccommerce.com/ncworks

“Governor Pat McCrory has a dedicated plan for workforce success. Throughout this year the Department of Commerce Division of Workforce Solutions, the North Carolina Commission on Workforce Development, the North Carolina Community College System and hundreds of dedicated employees will partner to make NCWorks. The focus is on one goal: connecting North Carolina jobs with North Carolina people through the efficient use of resources, streamlined customer service for citizens and businesses, alignment of programs and a consistent, cohesive strategy all under one name NCWorks.”

Funding for all this ‘one goal’ business? I’m so glad you asked. Look below:

That’s right from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act! (remember all the ‘shovel ready projects’ that was to bring? Remember all the other nightmares we have now due to the ARRA’s funding?) The flowchart above is from 2010. However, let me point out:
1) this is just the Workforce funding, other funds from the ARRA have been placed in several other related categories. The biggest went to the NC Dept. of Commerce. ‘Oddly’ enough, all the fund reports EXCEPT the Commerce‘s report, are available for you to access. See: http://www.nccommerce.com/research-publications/recovery-programs-funding
So, knowing the Workforce alignment is going on as we speak; knowing we can trace the funding, where should you look in your state for such activities?
1) The Chamber of Commerce(state and local levels)
2) the local workforce development boards, the state workforce development agencies
3) tourism departments and agriculture commissions
4) economic development boards, offices, or projects (NC has one called “Thrive NC”, chock full of community-workforce-education alignment)
See: http://www.thrivenc.com/whync/education (here you’ll find the NC New Schools (very CCSS aligned) the Gates Foundation, the Career/College Promise (which is the CCSS/CTE bridge I’ve previously written about), you see the SAT and other assessments, you’ll see Smart Start and more)
5) educational partners (especially in the post-secondary institutions) If you’re not sure about which educational partners you’ll need to look into, try the “ThriveNC” document where it’s all laid out: Thrivencreport
6) any regional or city-to-city partnerships your state has.
These are all the places you’ll find ARRA funds; Workforce education aligned to CCSS and all under the guise of ‘collective communities’.
7) Look into your state laws/statutes. Here in NC, there are several which are in place already and some which will be re-written to further support all this alignment. For example, NC General Statute 150B-21.3A (adopted in 2013) lays out all the rules for ‘streamlining’ the ‘creation of jobs’ in NC.

Warriors: if we ignore the rules of government on a state and local level which cater to the CCSS Machine, we’re doomed! We must look into our state laws and demand the citizens be heard. You’ve seen the evidence that more folks are against the CCSS than are for it. If we don’t attack the CCSS Machine on all fronts, we’re going to continue to see our nation suffer! CCSS is NOT just for K-12.
8) Below you’ll see the “NC Prosperity Zones”, check to see if your state has a similar zoning map. (This is key to our anti CCSS battle as much of the re-authorization efforts for the ESEA 1965 (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) via HR5 (Student Success Act), S1177 (Every Child Achieves Act) and the HEA (Higher Education Act), ALL have ‘poverty’; ‘less fortunate’; or ‘disadvantaged youth’ included in the language of these bills in several places.)

Set up for the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’?! Could this be another kind of segregation our nation is gearing up for?! Think about it.

So, Where’s the CCSS, CTE? I Don’t See Them:

Up to this point, you’ve not seen anything in documented proof which states the Career Tech Education (or any of its other names) or CCSS is specifically tied to the WIOA, NCWorks, or the ARRA funds. So, where are the CTE/CCSS/Career Pathways, etc. hiding?
Look into this set of slides from the NCWorks Career Pathways Conference: NCWorks Pathways Conference Slides_MB
When you look into it, be sure to note that the “NC Prosperity Zone Map” is also included.

Another place you need to look in your state: The current WIOA funds awarded to each state for ‘job creation’
1) the businesses receiving funding to help in the job creation/education ‘marriage’.
2) WIOA funds are being treated much like the Race to the Top funding, in that states can apply for funds to streamline education/workforce, jump through several hoops, have to supply certain amounts of data of every participant, and help the CCSS/CTE agenda along at the same time. Below is a screen shot of the application’s portion for data collection/mining:

A brief look at a 2015-16 application for funds to continue Workforce activities.

Want more Career Pathways proof? Here’s a document which gave NC $5.25 million for Career Pathways for the disadvantaged: https://www.nccommerce.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=Pv4HMQ0y8Gs%3d&tabid=3697&mid=8957The ‘catch’ for any disadvantaged participant? They MUST have a Career Readiness Certificate. (CRCs are CCSS/CTE aligned) You can find the CRC requirement on pages 3 and 4 of the above document. Oh, by the way, NC will award business for their participation in these programs. The CP for disadvantaged comes with a $150,000.00 ‘incentive’!

The NCWorks Partnership Conference:

This ‘smooze fest’ of CCSS/CTE/Career Pathway enthusiasts is set for October 28-30, 2015.
Here’s a large portion of what attendees will be able to learn:••Align4NCWorks: Collaborative Planning = GreaterCollective Impact••The Skills Employers Want from College Grads••NCWorks Goes to College! Forging the Workforce &Adult Education Partnership••Federal Workforce Development Policy: What’sHappening & What’s Next••Regional Economic Development Collaboration:Project New York (CBC Americas)••Hit a Home Run! New Tools for Career Planners••NC Youth Apprentice Panel••Industry Recognized Credentials: Aligning Trainingto Workforce Needs••NCWorks Online for Staff••Lateral Thinking Skills: Developing a New Breed ofLeaders